Cleaning/oiling used Paulsons with DCC..the more I read the less I know.

I received a set of the Bremerton Paulsons from Jim(thechiproom). I also ordered a bottle of his Diamond Chip Cleaner. I've done searches and read and read but cannot seem to get an agreement on what I need to do to make chips play worthy.

I tried just using a magic eraser to clean the chips(just 2 for a test) but the blue from the chips is transferring to the eraser...is that normal/ok?

I am going to try to use the DCC this weekend. Am I supposed to dilute it or just poor it on some chips wait 10 minutes and go.

Does anyone think soaking in DCC then rubbing cleaner off chips with a magic eraser instead of a sponge is overkill?

How do I know if I should oil the chips? My plan is to go ahead and lightly oil them on the rolling edges.

Again I have the DCC so Im going to try it, not resolve or TSP. So Im really looking for advice from someone who has experience with the DCC. thanks.

Supporter

I cleaned about 2k Emerald Princess and 700 Bahamias by letting them soak 90-120 minutes in non-diluted DCC, brushing them with a toothbrush, and carefully wiping them dry with a soft towel. There's usually no oiling necessary for Paulsons when using DCC. Oiling makes sense if you are using a cleaner that dries out your chips and bleaches their colors, but I never heard this happen when using DCC on Paulsons.

I cleaned about 2k Emerald Princess and 700 Bahamias by letting them soak 90-120 minutes in non-diluted DCC, brushing them with a toothbrush, and carefully wiping them dry with a soft towel. There's usually no oiling necessary for Paulsons when using DCC. Oiling makes sense if you are using a cleaner that dries out your chips and bleaches their colors, but I never heard this happen when using DCC on Paulsons.

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How many chips did you dump into how much DCC? Did you do say 500 chips then dump out the DCC and refill the bowl with fresh DCC?

I have the larger bottle and am debating dumping all of it into bowl for all 500 chips or doing about 1/5th of the bottle per 100 chips and then cleaning out bowl and putting fresh DCC in for the next 100 chips.

Supporter

How many chips did you dump into how much DCC? Did you do say 500 chips then dump out the DCC and refill the bowl with fresh DCC?

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I'd dump all of it into one bowl. I usually place ten chips in a container filled with one larger bottle of DCC. When taking them out for brushing and wiping I place the next ten chips and so on. I repeat this to the point where the liquid gets too dirty. Obviously this point is quite subjective. At the end of a session simply put your used DCC back in the bottle, wait a day and let the grime sink to the ground, then decide if it's good enough for another session or may at least be used for pre-soaking.

Rotate the chips through the DCC as you feel comfortble. For lightly soiled chips, I put as many in the solution as it takes me to clean in the soak time (ie if I am soaking chips for ten minutes, I put in the number of chips that take about ten minutes to scrub and rotate). For heavily soiled chips, I might soak all of them overnight (with occasional stirring) and clean the next day.

For scrubbing I use an electric toothbrush (waaay better than a regular toothbrush). A lot of CTers use a toothpick for the small depressions (like the canes or the outer ring on THC chips).

Magic Erasers can't be beaten for cleaning up the rolling edge.

If you have hard clay transfer (streaks of clay across the chip caused by scoring the edge of one chip across another) don't try too hard to remove it in the first go round - set those chips aside. Try the magic eraser with maximum pressure (don't break the chip) and this should work to a point. If there are heavy streaks on the inlay, you can use fine steel wool. Nothing I have tried will completely take hard clay transfer off of the clay surface. Since DCC doesn't adversely affect the clay of a chip, it doesn't do much to soften the transfer streaks either.

I'd filter (coffee filtre) the used DCC before returning it to the bottle.

After thoroughly washing and drying the chips, you may see some degree of fading proportional to time spent in the solution. I would then oil the chips, but many on CT would not.

Premium Supporter

For heavily soiled chips, I might soak all of them overnight (with occasional stirring) and clean the next day.

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^^ This cracked me up, as I envisioned mtl mile end setting his alarm clock and periodically getting up throughout the night to go to the kitchen and stir his chip pot...

I use an oxy-clean soak followed by a damp magic eraser rub, and haven't yet found a rack-check mark that could not be completely removed. The PCA primary hundos were pretty bad in this regard, as were the Aztar primary hundos - both had seriously nasty black streaks on the inlays.

I was fooling around with my nasty empress hundo's and just happened to have some baby wipes nearby...so I gave it a whirl. VOIlA!!! Gunk comes off lickity split and I swear I don't have to oil them...shiny, happy chips ready to go.

Supporter

I spent some time on a rack of hotstamped Empress roulettes last night, and here's what I did:

1) A 15 minute soak in Oxiclean solution (roughly 2 quarts warm water with 2 tbsp Oxiclean) followed by a thorough cold water rinse.
2) A quick rub on each side with a wet Magic Eraser to remove most of the dirt.
3) Scrub with a child's toothbrush to get the gunk out of the edge ring and TH&Cs.

The chips cleaned up nicely, and the hotstamps appeared to be fine afterwards. I did notice some color transfer on the Magic Eraser when cleaning the dark blue chips, but the chips looked okay. Lighter & brighter colors were tougher, because the dirt just stands out more, and on a few chips there was dirt embedded in the outer edge ring that I just couldn't get out.

Premium Supporter

I spent some time on a rack of hotstamped Empress roulettes last night, and here's what I did:

1) A 15 minute soak in Oxiclean solution (roughly 2 quarts warm water with 2 tbsp Oxiclean) followed by a thorough cold water rinse.
2) A quick rub on each side with a wet Magic Eraser to remove most of the dirt.
3) Scrub with a child's toothbrush to get the gunk out of the edge ring and TH&Cs.

The chips cleaned up nicely, and the hotstamps appeared to be fine afterwards. I did notice some color transfer on the Magic Eraser when cleaning the dark blue chips, but the chips looked okay. Lighter & brighter colors were tougher, because the dirt just stands out more, and on a few chips there was dirt embedded in the outer edge ring that I just couldn't get out.

So I give it a 95% - they look fantastic, but not quite perfect.

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Gotta be careful with OxyClean and hotstamped chips -- I've found that it can easily turn some gold hotstamps silver, and pretty quickly, too. I don't use it on hotstamped chips at all -- that's why I still keep some Resolve carpet cleaner in stock.

For those pesky dirt-embeded outer edge rings, I use a wooden toothpick followed by another damp Magic Eraser rub - usually does the trick.

Supporter

Gotta be careful with OxyClean and hotstamped chips -- I've found that it can easily turn some gold hotstamps silver, and pretty quickly, too. I don't use it on hotstamped chips at all -- that's why I still keep some Resolve carpet cleaner in stock.

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I've read that here (probably one of your previous posts), so this batch was a bit of a test run. I bought 100 roulettes in assorted colors for "poker" with my kids, and I wasn't too worried if the hotstamps got damaged. They seem to be fine; no fading or color change noticed, so I feel pretty safe using the same system with the roulettes that I bought for FL and cash game quarters.

Premium Supporter

One more question about oiling. I'm halfway through cleaning my Empress's. Because they are used, I should think they might need longer time being left oiled before wiping them dry.

Should I just oil them and wipe right after? Or should I leave them to dry onto a towel before wiping? And if so, for how long time for the best result?

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The longer you leave on the oil, the greater the risk that it will seep into the shaped inlays. I lightly oil 20 chips at a time, and it only stays on as long as it takes to get to wiping down the 20th chip - then I start over. I let oiled chips air-dry for 24 hours after wipe-down, before racking 'em.

Lifetime Supporter

The longer you leave on the oil, the greater the risk that it will seep into the shaped inlays. I lightly oil 20 chips at a time, and it only stays on as long as it takes to get to wiping down the 20th chip - then I start over. I let oiled chips air-dry for 24 hours after wipe-down, before racking 'em.

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Yeh, that is my fear too. I had that phenomenon with my PCA hundos, but they are all right now. I think I will do it your way too. Thanks for helping out. I noticed that some of the Empress let water go underneath the inlay much easier than others while soaking and washing, some LCV, some SCV, didn't manage to follow which ones more. But the dark waterspots from under the inlay has come off quite well. But I don't want the same thing happen with oil.

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